We recently connected with Hilary Hartling and have shared our conversation below.

Hilary, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

As a Brand & Messaging Strategist running my own business, I often draw from the lessons and experiences I had in my prior job where I spent 15 years running Integrated Marketing & Synergy for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Marketing (working on beloved, global entertainment brands: Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Touchstone).

Not only were we constantly marketing the overall Disney brand (or Pixar, or Marvel), but we were creating mini-brands with each individual film we released. All the marketing plans stemmed from the overall brand strategy and you wanted to ensure every film was in keeping with the umbrella brand’s promise and consumer expectations. You needed to know exactly how you were going to position a film to each of the individual target audiences you were pursuing in order to have box office success. There are many lessons that I’ve taken from this approach to not only run my own business now, but it’s what I teach all my clients and students as well.

Having a solid brand strategy foundation creates the roadmap to every other part of your business. If you try to create content (i.e. your marketing) without having a big picture strategy for your brand, you may be able to churn out some content for awhile, but it’s not as purposeful, and it may not be as captivating because you don’t have all the pieces of your brand in place that inform every decision and allow you to create a consistent message and experience for your audience. In addition, even a small business owner can have a bigger umbrella brand with sub-brands that align with the overall promise. Applying this to entrepreneurs, as opposed to a huge global brand like Disney, I consider your offers to be the “sub-brands” that are each unique in their own right (they each serve their purpose); however, they all align with the overall mission and vision with your overall brand.

When you have a successful brand to model, it certainly makes it easier to determine how you want to take those lessons and put your own spin on it when you’re developing your own brand and helping hundreds of other entrepreneurs create theirs. Love that I can sprinkle some of my knowledge of “Disney magic” on brands built by passion and purpose driven entrepreneurs.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a former Disney marketing executive (where my focus was on Integrated Marketing, Synergy Partnerships & Creative Content) who specializes in brand strategy and messaging and am well-known for helping entrepreneurs create clear + cohesive brands to captivate their clients. In my brand strategy business, I work with business visionaries and purpose-driven entrepreneurs including service providers, creatives, online educators, and product makers.

I use my BRANDPOLISH METHOD™ to help develop or refresh your brand. I believe there’s an art to polishing your brand and my approach helps you unearth and express the deeper meaning that drives your brand, inspires your audience, and is the why behind your business. While there’s an established system for developing your brand strategy included, giving you a roadmap to the essentials you need to define (positioning, target audience, mission, vision, values & more), my experience working at Disney marketing movies for 15 years taught me to always leave room for magic, and that’s exactly what my Brandpolish Method allows.

Whether in my 1:1 done-for-you service, or via THE BRANDPOLISH ACADEMY™, a self-study, self-paced online course, you’ll gain the clarity you need to feel confident in sharing your expertise and stand-out offers, knowing you’re presenting a clear, cohesive and compelling brand to move your audience.

Every bit of the work I’ve done in my career – from my dream job at Disney to running my own dream brand strategy business now – revolves around inspiration. I not only love inspiring audiences, my core vision is to inspire people to pursue their passion and purpose because I believe inspired people do their best work, and that work can change the world.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on social media starting from 0 when I first left my career at Disney and struck out on my own. The first few hundred people were friends, family and my former entertainment network of colleagues across movie studios, cable and broadcast networks, and creative vendors. Interestingly enough, none of these people were my target audience. I focused my biggest effort on my Instagram account and over 6 years grew it to over 11K followers…and then my account got hacked. What this quickly taught me is that I cannot focus all my marketing efforts on a “borrowed platform.” I needed to focus on getting all of my relevant followers from all my social media platforms (I was also on LinkedIn and FaceBook) onto an email list because that can’t be hacked or taken away – – – or be altered by an algorithm.

I did get my Instagram account back, but I have 9K followers now, and honestly, my account’s engagement has never been the same. I’m sharing this story as I’m about to make a switch and begin my entire Instagram account anew with an account starting back at 0. So if you’re wondering my advice if you’re starting your social media presence from scratch and you want some guidance for what to do? Here are my recommendations:

1 – Whichever social media platform(s) you decide to be on – set up Two Factor Authentication. It’s a security measure that will make it much less likely for your account to be hacked or stolen.
2 – Establish your branded content pillars – this is something I help entrepreneurs do as part of building their overall brand strategy. You want to determine the key focus areas your brand will communicate about consistently to build the brand perception you want and that will resonate with your target audience. These content pillars will help guide more purposeful content.
3 – Be consistent. No matter how often you decide to post – 1x / week, 3x / week, daily…the key is to be consistent with what you choose to do.
4 – Don’t simply post, engage. Just because you show up on social media, doesn’t mean your audience will automatically find you. A key part of your follower growth strategy on social media needs to be going out and engaging with people who you feel represent your ideal clients in order to entice them back to check out your page.
5 – It’s not just about the numbers, and your #1 focus should be using social media as a promotional platform to drive people to your lead magnets, marketing funnels and offers.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

When you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur, I believe your reputation IS your brand, It’s the impression you leave, what people think of or feel when they think of your business, and the expectations you’ve established. There are three main ways I’ve built my reputation within my market:

1 – Networking
When I first started, I didn’t know any other entrepreneurs. I was fresh off my 15 year corporate career, and I wanted to meet more women who were starting businesses, figuring out how to grow a business AND design a life they loved. I found a couple of fantastic female entrepreneur networking groups in Los Angeles that met regularly. I ended up getting my first clients from the people I met at these networking functions, and grew my business from there.

2 – Word of mouth from client referrals
Once I had clients, those clients kept referring other business owners to me based on the great experience they had and how clear and confident they now felt with their own brands. Referrals are one of the best ways of spreading the word about your great work, and it’s a key strategy to building your reputation. You can design official client referral programs with incentives and I also recommend focusing on creating a great off boarding process in your business if you have a service-based business. You can follow up and secure great testimonials this way, too.

3 – Showing up in person
When you are the face of your business and/or you’re building a personal brand tied to your business, you want to show up in person. Whether it’s talking face to camera on your Instagram stories, reels, or it’s a Facebook Live to your private community, or guest speaking at events or within other people’s programs or masterminds, when you show your face, it helps create the like-know-trust factor that builds your reputation much quicker. Look for opportunities to be more visible, and create them yourself within your own business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hilaryhartling.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hilaryhartling/
• Facebook: https.//www.facebook.com/HilaryHartlingHQ/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilaryhartling/

Image Credits
Girl Squad Media